By Mark Muckenfuss

Isabella Lawrence is improvising a new future in music with the help of CSU Monterey Bay and its relationship with the Monterey Jazz Festival. 

The historic music festival, the second-longest-running jazz festival in the country, was held Sept. 22-24 at the Monterey County Fairgrounds. And among the thousands of people drifting between five stages, experiencing everything from traditional to popular to experimental forms of the jazz genre, were a number of CSUMB students who were either working as interns or doing project work for a class specifically focused on the festival. 

Lawrence, a third-year music major, is one of two interns who are part of a collaborative agreement between the university and the festival. Marcia Vandervinne, the other intern, is in the festival’s education division. Lawrence spent her summer working with Bill Wagner, the festival’s production and IT manager, and loving it. 

“If you’re wanting to push yourself, this internship is perfect,” Lawrence said. “I got the internship in June. I told Bill, ‘I want to do whatever you’re doing up until the festival.’

That meant working at the San Jose and Los Gatos jazz festivals, which Wagner also helps run. By the time Monterey’s festival arrived, she was accustomed to the frenetic environment and had become well acquainted with much of the personnel. She also made many connections with performers and producers – not a bad thing when you are a singer yourself.

"I would say my foundation just got restructured from sand to rocks,” Lawrence said. “It has substance now.”

Part of that is a job offer from the festival. 

“Isabella, she’s incredible,” said Wagner, who started working with CSUMB interns three years ago, after past programs with USC and the Berkeley College of Music. “We’ve offered her a part-time position. She can help out with some special events we do throughout the year. She wants to be a part of the long-term family. She kids that she’d like my job one day, and I can see her doing that.”

Vandervinne, a third-year music major, said prior to the actual festival she spent time helping with the organization’s local outreach for schools. She said it’s a unique benefit for local students. Her job during the festival was to help shepherd 120 student performers from as far away as North Carolina through workshops and stage shows during the festival. Doing so, she said, was not something she expected when she came to CSUMB.

“It’s a godsend really,” she said. “I really like working with the next-generation students. And [jazz legend] Dianne Reeves is going to do a master class with these kids. Oh my gosh!”

In addition to Lawrence and Vandervinne, students taking the Monterey Jazz Festival class, offered through CSUMB’s music and performing arts department, were also at the festival. Part of the requirements of the course is to do a festival-based project. 

Assistant Professor Althea SullyCole teaches the course, which was established by former department chair Jeffrey Jones. She said it is a needed addition to the curriculum.

“I come from a family of jazz musicians,” SullyCole said. “I was taken aback last year when I found out there were students from Salinas who had never heard of the festival. It’s been really wonderful to see students who haven’t been exposed to the festival and to see what it means to them. I would describe my students’ experience of the festival last year as transformative.”

Marlena Christensen, a third-year music student from Salinas, said it has felt that way for her. She said she’s known about the festival but had never attended.

“I grew up listening to jazz,” Christensen said. “I’ve known about this festival since I was little.” 

On Friday, she stood outside the main stage venue. Her festival ticket didn’t give her access to the headline concert. 

“I got to go stand outside Herbie Hancock.” She paused for a moment before saying, “I’m going to cry. Listening to him was like a full-circle moment. I feel pretty emotional about it.”

She was working on a photography project on the festival and was taking pictures not only of the performers but those attending as well. She was pleased that she had just spoken with and photographed two families who had three generations attending the event. She had her own adolescent son in tow for the day.

“I’m hoping just to get it in his ears,” she said, “just for him to say he’s been to the Monterey Jazz Festival. I want him to see the culture, the diversity.”

Her career goals include teaching music to students in grades K-8. One day, she may get to share with them her festival experience. 

“I think this collaboration with the university is so fantastic,” she said. 

Other students in her class were working on such projects as creating a painting of the festival, writing a series of songs inspired by the music and the atmosphere and looking at the event’s storied history through various lenses, such as civil rights, diversity and local impact. 

Jones said he created the course in 2020 a year after coming to CSUMB. He saw the jazz festival as a tremendous resource.

“You get this experience you can’t get anywhere else,” he said. 

The students seem to agree, as do the interns.

“This means more to me because of the historical background,” said Lawrence, standing near a stage waiting for Samara Joy to perform. “It’s more than just music. There is culture here.” 

A culture she said she now feels a part of and one she hopes to contribute to. 

“It’s my time to shine,” she said.